Stop Constraining Common Parts Use iMate

I see a lot of Inventor users spending time constraining commonly used parts. Utilizing iMate functionality can save time when constraining these commonly used parts. The idea of iMates is to create half of the constraint lets say on a library component which only needs to be done once, then the other half of the constraint to any item that may need that part constrained to it. You also have the ability to create groups of iMates called composites. With this you select a group of iMates from the browser right click and select create composite. You have multiple ways of controlling placement of iMates when inserting components into an assembly. If you are adding such a component and it has multiple placements inside of your design do a simple right click of your mouse to bring up some options for placement. From here you could just select place all matching iMates this will solve all matches; you have other options for filtering your selection also.

Check it out
Submitted by Dave of the INCAT CAD Geeks

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